Main site for the machinima movies produced by the director kibishipaul. Stories with a twist in the tale set in Japan.

On this page you can download high quality versions of the Tokyo Tales series.

You can download the videos, but not reproduce them for commercial purposes.

The first is below.

The Lecher

#1 The Lecher – Quicktime (105MBs)

The inspiration for this movie came from watching people reading various comics on commuter trains in Japan. In these comics and in Japanese society in general, there is a great fixation on high school girls or ‘kogyal’, as they are called. This ranges from the fairly innocent focus on teenage fashion and fads to the seedier side of ‘enjo kosai’ – teenage prostitution with middle age men. This has been widely reported in the press. (though over sensationalized, as 99% of teenage girls are not going to be seen dead within 10 meters of anyone over forty!)

Recently in Japan there have been a lot of cases involving the stalking and sometimes murder of young women. Often the news reports have included a lot of criticism of the police who have done little to help even after repeated complaints from the victims. For this sequel to ‘The Lecher’ I decided to reverse roles and have the female police officer take the role of the stalker with Kenjiro Sato as the apparent victim.

In this, the third part of the Lecher series, we look more at the fascination of middle age men in Japan for the ‘girl next door’ type of young women. Though very often just an innocent fascination with an ideal there have been many stories where this fascination has gone a lot further, with the more interesting reports involving teenaged girls or young women taking advantage of this allure to rob or blackmail unsuspecting ‘ojisan’ (middle age men).

Japan is often seen as a male dominated country with women in the background and under thumb. With this movie, the final in the Lecher series, we see all of the female personalities in Kenjiro Sato’s life dominating him in some way or another. From the ‘schoolgirl’ pickpocket who fools him at every turn. The professional detective who uses him for her own ends. His wife who like most wives in Japan controls the purse strings and thinks of Kenjiro as a little boy. Even his secretary goes behind his back. Kenjiro lives in his own world, where the women are all demure but sexy, fanatasy figures and in the end this comes crashing down around his ears.

The people of Japan are very concious of hygiene. At the slightest sign of a sniffle or sneeze they will don masks either to protect themselves from infection or prevent passing on whatever they’ve got to others. At the same time there is a tendency to sanitize everything that is shared, including of late, elevator rails, airconditioning units with special bacteria killing ozone and self cleaning toilet seats. At times, when there are health scares such as the recent swine flu and SARS outbreaks, the unease is palpable, especially on crowded trains and subways where it is difficult not to come in close contact with people. In this movie I’ve tried to portray the panic and futility of trying to avoid all illness, while showing there are some events you just cannot be prepared for.

One of my favorite stories I decided to remake as a machinima movie in four parts. As in so many other retellings of this story there will be some differences to the original classic written by Robert Louise Stevenson. The reasons for this are many. Partly because I hope to keep the overall film to under 30 minutes. Also because making any movie in machinima has it’s limitations. But mainly because the Hyde in the original story would not raise much in the way of fear in this day and age so I will be taking some liberty with this character to try and instil a greater sense of evil and danger.

The original story by Hans Christian Anderson was first published in 1845 and has been a staple of the Christmas to New Year season ever since, with adaptations by Disney among many others. In my slant on the story I’ve decided to make the main character a little less passive in the acceptance of her fate. Although she goes through the same heartbreak up until her death, her shade or ghost comes back to life to wreak a terrible vengeance on all those who wronged her, including the spirit of the season, Santa Clause.

In this episode, Utterson tries to get to the bottom of Doctor Jekyll’s fascination for the evil Hyde who seems to be descending into insanity. Jekyll is more concerned about Hyde than his own safety and persuades a reluctant Utterson to support Hyde if he needs help. After a quiet but uneasy few months a terrible crime shocks the people of London….

In this episode the manhunt for the evil Hyde begins. Utterson explores the back streets of 19th Century London in the company of Inspector Newcombe and Sergeant Bourne, and with a little help from the colorful character Molly.

At the end of the last episode, John Utterson together with Inspector Newcombe and his police sergeant find a hidden corridor down to a horrifying basement room. The continuation of the story has Hyde chased around the seedier parts of London

In life there is death. In medieval times it was considered the great equalizer with Emperors and peasants alike as one before the grim reaper. Part of the inspiration for this movie comes from a song by Franz Schubert;

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[…] backpacking tour for 20 years in Japan, our sixth Featured Picniker has devoted himself to art, short film-making, nurturing relationships with the people he meets in his profession, and the varied and […]